Call for general strike by Israeli Palestinians

Reports from Times of Israel, Al Jazeera, and right-wing publication Arutz Sheva calls it a ‘pro terror’ move despite the obvious intent of promoting a non-violent form of self-assertion.

Bringing it back home: Palestinian boy flashes V for victory after Palestinians from Gaza tore down a section of the separation fence and entered Israel, October 12th. Photo by Mohammed Abed / AFP

Stores shuttered as Palestinians, Arab Israelis mark ‘Day of Rage’

Arab business owners worried over grassroots Jewish threat to identify the businesses they own, then boycott them during rest of the year

By Times of Israel staff
October 13, 2015

Palestinian groups and Arab Israelis in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and northern Israel have declared Tuesday a “Day of Rage,” urging mass demonstrations against the Israeli government and its policies, in the wake of a series of daily terrorist attacks carried out against Israeli civilians across the region.

At the same time, leading Arab Israeli politicians called on municipalities and local authorities to participate in a general strike on Tuesday to protest changes it accuses Israel of planning to make to the status quo on the Temple Mount, home to the al-Aqsa Mosque — considered to be one of Islam’s holiest sites and the holiest site in Judaism.

The Israeli government has repeatedly denied that it intends to make any such changes. Jews are currently allowed to visit the Temple Mount but not to pray there.

All businesses and educational institutions in Arab communities across Israel shut down on Tuesday, with lawmakers from the Joint (Arab) List set to lead a large demonstration in the northern Israel town of Sakhnin. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are planning to hold a parallel strike on the same day.

The decision to strike came at a meeting of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel umbrella organization on Sunday. The meeting, held in the Arab town of Kafr Qara in northern Israel, explored various forms of protest before calling the strike. The strike was to be launched over what the group called “the efforts by the Netanyahu government to separate Muslims from al-Aqsa Mosque.”

On Monday, Joint (Arab) List chairman MK Ayman Odeh said his party members will refrain from visiting al-Aqsa Mosque for the time being so as not to spark any additional unrest. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a blanket ban on lawmakers’ visits to the compound due to the ongoing tensions. The Arab Israeli MKs had intended to visit the Temple Mount on Sunday despite the ban but later delayed the trip.

The decision to issue the Temple Mount ban was made in late September, but police only began implementing it last week. It originally only included Jewish lawmakers, but was extended to all MKs after protests from cabinet ministers.

Not all Arab Israelis have expressed enthusiasm for the strike; Nazareth Mayor Ali Salem has criticized the decision, Channel 2 reported, and called on the Joint List Knesset members to instead take action to calm the recent violence.

“I blame the leaders; they are destroying our future, they are destroying coexistence,” Salem told Army Radio on Sunday.

A representative of Arab business owners in the mixed city of Acre said the town’s Arab business owners “honour the decision of the High Follow Up Committee but do not decided for business owners whether to open or not. Each person decides as they think.”

The representative, Hanni Asadi, told Ynet that a grassroots Israeli countermeasure aimed at identifying which businesses are owned by Arabs and boycotting them after the strike ends was the effort of “inciters trying to destroy Jewish Arab relations.”

“Extremists are trying to ruin the good atmosphere. In this racist decision of theirs, they show how stupid they are. They will not deter us because we answer to no one but God. We all hope this wave will pass and tourism and security will return to what they were,” he said.

An Arab journalist from Haifa, Shahin Nassar, told Ynet many business owners in the city were taking the Jewish threats seriously: “Many of their clients are Jewish residents of the city. As in every time when tempers are flaring because of the security situation there are calls for sanctions against Arab citizens. Some business owners were threatened with sanctions if they close up shop and join the strike. This is pure racism. Every person has the right to their political opinions and such calls are a threat to Israel’s democracy. Business owners want the police to investigate who is behind the threat [of sanctions].”

The wave of attacks across the country began in Jerusalem last month ostensibly over what Israel repeatedly insist are unfounded Palestinian rumors that Israel was expanding its presence at the Temple Mount and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday during a meeting with Indian President Pranab Mukherjee who is visiting the region that the attacks were “a result of the aggressive behaviour of Israeli security forces and the settlers.”

“Israeli Arabs and Bedouin protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. A majority of Israeli Arabs feel they would be justified in launching an intifada, or uprising, if their situation did not improve, according to a survey conducted by Haifa University sociologist Sammy Smooha. At the same time, more than half reconcile themselves to living in a state with an Israeli-Hebrew culture.” Times of Israel, June 2013. Photo by Kobi Gideon/Flash90

Palestinians in Israel call for strike as protests grow

Prime Minister Netanyahu blames Palestinian legislators in the Knesset for protests spreading throughout Israel.

By Creede Newton, Al Jazeera
October 13 2015

Jerusalem – Palestinian citizens of Israel have announced a general strike and more protests as unrest continues to sweep Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories since the killing of two Israeli settlers in the West Bank on October 1.

The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, an extraparliamentary body that represents the minority community, declared a general strike for Tuesday. Arab-owned businesses, schools and other institutions will be closed.

For the past week, thousands of Palestinians in Israel have protested in Haifa, Jaffa, Nazareth and other cities and villages in Palestinian communities across the country.

The High Follow-Up Committee said in a statement that “solidarity and protest” were necessary in the face of “fascist incitement” and attacks on the part of the Israeli government.

Majd Kayyal, media coordinator of Haifa-based Adalah Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel who has attended protests in the last week, told Al Jazeera that the strike was motivated by the “harsh treatment” employed by Israeli police to disperse peaceful protests in present-day Israel.

“There isn’t a Palestinian city or village that hasn’t protested the colonial policies in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and just like in [the occupied territories], the Israeli response has been brutal,” he said.

Kayyal estimates that “100 people have been arrested in the past week. It shows that the Israeli police views us as the enemy”.

Last Thursday, Israeli police arrested 16 protesters in Nazareth during clashes, according to local media. Just two days earlier, confrontations between police and demonstrators left six officers injured and two protesters detained.

The occupied territories and Israel have been gripped by a wave of violence, with 27 Palestinians, some of whom were suspected attackers, killed since October 3. More than 1,990 others have been injured, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health.

Since the beginning of the month, four Israelis have been killed and 67 wounded. The majority of this violence has taken place in Israeli-occupied areas.

Speaking at an emergency Knesset session on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called upon Palestinian citizens of Israel to “kick out the extremists among you”.

Netanyahu said he wants “coexistence between Arabs and Jews in Israel”, but that certain parties and organisations are “undermining” the government and supporting violent actions.

His comments come at a time when the Israeli government is cracking down on dissent from Israel’s Palestinian minority, which accounts for more than 20 percent of the population.

Including Muslims, Christians and Druze, 1.7 million Palestinians carry Israeli citizenship and live in communities across the country. They are targeted by more than 50 discriminatory laws that stifle their political expression and limit their access to state resources, according to Adalah.

The prime minister expressed that he will seek to make illegal the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, which he says is “spreading lies” about Israel’s frequent incursions in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied East Jerusalem, the flashpoint for the current round of violence.

On Sunday, Netanyahu instructed Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to open a criminal investigation into Knesset member Hanin Zoabi of the Arab Joint List, an electoral coalition of Palestinian-majority parties, after she called for a “popular Intifada”.

Yousef Jabareen, a member of the Arab Joint List electoral coalition, told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu wants “coexistence in which Jews are entitled [to] privileges over Arab citizens”.

Jabareen says that Palestinians in Israel are a minority that is “excluded and discriminated against. We share in the struggle for an independent Palestinian state, and cannot accept inferior status in our homeland”.

Follow Creede Newton on Twitter: @CreedeNewton

Campaign to Keep Arab Pro-Terror Stores Closed

Arab citizens of Israel declare strike to protest in support of terror; in response, ‘shaming’ campaign calls to share photos of the stores.

By Reut Hadar, Arutz Sheva
Octobeer 13, 2015

A general strike was declared by Arab citizens of Israel for this Tuesday, as they decided to go out and demonstrate in support of the recent wave of Arab terrorism sweeping the state.

In response, a campaign has arisen calling on Jews to send pictures of the Arab stores that are closed as part of the pro-terror protest, in an effort to compile a list of which Arab businesses support terror.

The Samaria Residents’ Council together with the Headquarters of Mixed Cities, an activist group for cities with Jewish and Arab populations mixed together, decided to launch the campaign so as to spread the names of the Arab stores that close in a sign of support for the terror attacks.

The goal is to spread the list of names, so that even after the strike ends Jews will know which stores closed, and will not shop there anymore.

Those interested in taking part in the campaign are asked to send the name of Arab Israeli stores they see closed as part of the strike on Tuesday, together with a picture of the closed store, to the phone number 052-607-0521 via the cell phone application Whatsapp.

Aside from concerned citizens taking part in the project, teams of the initiators of the campaign on Tuesday morning went out around the country to document the closed stores.

“We hope that this action will cause some of the Arab Israelis to realize their income will be harmed even after the strike that they announced,” wrote the organizers in a poster announcing the campaign.

“Those going out against the state of Israel need to understand the ramifications, and we will expose for everybody those who support terror and those who don’t,” stated the Samaria Residents’ Council. “Every Arab Israeli who doesn’t support terror won’t be harmed by the process.”